Here are my troubles. I've always wanted a JEM7V. I have located two to choose from. One standard and one with a Fernandes sustainer installed. ( FLO Clone ) White to boot (or painted not sure yet). Cost for either one is fairly close. Both are rated 4 of 5 stars cosmetically.

Waiting on a call back to check the model year on both.

I've never played a JEM before. My current fav electric guitar is my 1987 Kramer with active EMG's. I use the 5-way pickup switch quite often to get the tone I'm looking for playing a variety of styles.

I have a question regarding the 5-way pickup switch on the ax that has the sustainer installed. What tone will I loose with this installed in the neck position? Does the 5-way switch now only act as a 3-way?

Not real familiar with this sustainer other than I know I'd love to mess around with one installed.

Both guitars would be from a very well known shop, but both are located hundreds of miles away from me at different locations. I hope this fact would eliminate getting a fake one sent. Be a mail order item. I'd assume they have a good return policy if I did not like the guitar. Need to research that though.

I know buy both would be the best choice , but my wife would kill me. Heck I'd prob. even trade my 1996 Guild D25 acoustic plus $ balance in for one of these.

Just can't decide if I really need the sustainer guitar or not. Any loss of tone range may sway my decision to the standard version.

Please chime in and inform me between the actual differences found in comparing these two beauties.

I just got a call back from the store that has the one with the sustainer installed. The store tech said the guitar looks darn near like it just arrived from the factory. He said the sustainer looks like it was installed from the factory as well. He said a very good luthier must have installed it as it looks perfect. Flush battery cover too. Its black though. Pic I saw was very tiny and real grainy. It's also the 401 with 3-way switch.

I can arrange for them to ship it to one of their stores closer to me. Still just over an hour drive, but I can then try it before I buy it.

They said their price is firm for now since they have only had it for about a month. After 3 months passes they start playing with the price. Comes with a case and all accessories. Even comes with the original neck pickup if one decided to pull the sustainer out.

Just got to make myself pull the trigger and blow the cob webs out of my wallet.

OK guys, pulled the trigger. This bad boy will be here in a couple days. I couldn't stop thinking about this guitar so I just called the guitar center store back. Its being shipped to my house tomorrow. The tech I bought it from said all the same great things about it as the guy I spoke with this morning. Even comes with a nice case.

Its been restrung with 10's and had a through set up performed.

Big question I have for you all now is what is this thing worth? See previous post for guitar details. I'll post my final cost with tax and shipping after hearing back from a couple of you. Not a scratch or belt mark on it.......

They have a 30 days no questions asked return policy so I'm sure I can return it if there is anything wrong with it.

I’ve had my eye on the Jem line for 20 years. I never grabbed one off the wall to try at the guitar shops as I knew I’d have to buy one then.

My gut feeling was correct. This thing feels really nice in your hands. I’m an instant fan of the neck. Love the thin feel. The ebony fret board & inlay looks sweet. You can bend notes damn near to the moon with ease. It’s quite a bit lighter than I expected too.

This one is a 2001. Came out of the box a bit dusty. No scratches at all. Just a very tiny dent inside the monkey grip. Someone must have picked it up with a ring on or something. I took an LED flash light and if you hold it just right you can see very, very faint swirl marks in a couple spots in the finish. From dusting off I suppose. Who studies a guitar this close under a microscope any way. All in all a very nice guitar that I’d rate in “like new “ condition.

Strings were loose for shipping I suppose. A five minute tune up had it playing like a dream. I plugged right into my old 100W Tube Marshall. Left all effects out for testing. Just built in gain and a little reverb. I didn’t even tighten up the lock nuts and it held a tune great after a through test session of string bending and tremolo flexing. This thing has a really nice tone. A really clean sound even with the gain cranked up. The clean channel really shows how bad ass these pickups are. Very cool.

The sustainer will take a day or two to get used to. Need to train both my hands to mute the strings better when playing slower melodies with the volume cranked. Pretty sweet addition though. I wish they would have put a white cover over the circuit board cut out. The black one just over states the cut out in my opinion. I may fix this soon. That install on Jeries, photo in above post, is top notch!

I should have picked one of these up years ago… It’s going to get a good wipe down tonight to get the dang dust off it.

Paid $1,499 + tax and shipping = $1,621. I have been researching these and this seems to be a pretty decent price compared to recent prices I’ve seen. I’ve not ran across any past sells with a sustainer installed so I’m not sure if this hurts or adds to the value of these. They seem to be holding their value quite well. I now see why!

w/tax and shipping 16...the guy probably had a ton in the guitarthe guitar is $25+250 for sustainer+god knows what to route/install- the guy could be in it close to 3

i have a pearl backplate on my guitar that covers the electronics hole-- it was a white pearl strat backplate that was cut and rounded- looks/works perfectand who cares no one will ever notice the back

install looks good- and with the extra knob didn't go overboard on the front or back- looks great

the bridge looks good- no wear/ no tarnish to it (thats a thing to worry about 10 yr old ibz guitars)

plus the old pickup is included- i like that kind of stuff- i get off on boxes/paperwork/and stuff taken off still included (and not thrown away)

Ill sell you a white sustainer driver for $7,777.77 but really (Jeries, or anyone else) how much are they worth (or how much could you squeeze or be willing to pay). BEAUTIFUL guitar man. every day for the past 670 days (two years) i have wanted a jem more and more. you are so lucky. congrats man, congrats. all you with jems and universes, consider yourself lucky!

There's nothing bad about that install (and that one is my guitar incidentally). It's a back-routed body so it already had a routing for the electronics as any back-routed Ibanez (IE: florals). Add to that the space for the sustainer board between the existing backroute and input jack route and you have this as end result.

Thanks fellas. Good to hear I didn't take a bath price wise on this one.

This thing plays so smooth. Had a chance to fondle it for about 2 hours last night. Had the amp up at 10 / max most of the time. I can't believe how easy it is to hit harmonics of all shapes and flavors. I was in the zone. Haven't felt that in quite some time.